


Brothers

by Occula



Category: U2
Genre: Bus, Gambling, M/M, Memory, October
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 17:24:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12537212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Occula/pseuds/Occula
Summary: During tour bus banter, Larry observes everyone and notices a lot.





	Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LJ June 18. 2005, in response to a challenge: write in a meme-generated pairing and era. I got A/L, October era.

From the next-to-back seat, Edge’s voice went on, hesitatingly.

“Madison, Wisconsin. Champaign, Illinois,” he said. “Spelt wrong.”

In the seat across from Edge’s, Bono held a scrawled copy of the itinerary, nodding.

“Then Kansas City,” Edge went on. “Then Colorado. Ehm, Fort … No, Denver first, then Fort … Dammit.”

In the seat in front of Edge, Larry looked across the aisle to Adam, who was mouthing something, but Larry couldn’t make it out until Edge said, “Collins! Fort Collins,” and Adam nodded.

 _Adam’s smarter than they think,_ Larry thought.

“After that, Florida,” Edge said.

“I can’t wait,” Adam said. “Sunshine! I’m going to wake up just enough to crawl to the nearest beach, then go back to sleep until the gig. Every day.”

Edge smiled, but his eyes were still a bit absent, focused on the quiz; Bono smiled, but he was still focused on administering the quiz. “Florida?”

Edge nodded. “Fort Myers. Palm … _West_ Palm Beach. Tampa. Tallahassee.”

“Wow,” Larry said despite himself. “I can’t believe you can do that.”

Edge shrugged modestly. “Lot of time on my hands,” he muttered. “Tennessee. Um. Knoxburg. No, Knoxville, stupid,” he said to himself. “Knoxville. Atlanta. Memphis. Louisville.”

“God, Edge,” Adam said, lighting a cigarette, not noticing the unlit one he’d already had tucked behind his ear.

This time Edge blushed a little. “I like looking at the map,” he said.

“Me, too,” Bono said, just a touch defensively.

“Sounds like we get away from the beaches for a while,” Adam grumbled.

“You’ll be sunburnt,” Larry said, not meaning to speak aloud.

“Sorry?” Adam smiled.

“If you lie in the sun all day,” Larry finished, sheepishly.

Bono was laughing. “Wouldn’t put it past him, though. He _will_ sleep on the beach all day if he gets a chance.”

“After all this dreary February, I deserve it,” Adam said in that snooty voice that always amused Larry. He couldn’t have said why it made him laugh so hard; perhaps because he knew that Adam wasn’t really that snooty in spite of his uppity ways, or perhaps because he sometimes thought that Adam really _was_ that snooty in spite of his lower-class, rock and roll leanings. Or perhaps it was the shine in Adam’s eyes when he was trying to be funny. He had a self-consciousness about him, a _hope they think I’m funny_ that prompted little bursts of affection on Larry’s part. _Doesn’t know he’s funny, doesn’t know he’s likeable._

“Clearly you’ve earned a reward,” Edge said dryly, in his own snooty voice, the one that put Bono in stitches. “Enduring weather and time as you’ve done.”

Adam laughed with Bono, but Larry wondered.

_He’s not sure whether Edge is really jabbing at him or not. He’s not always sure Edge really likes him._

“We all deserve a beach,” Larry put in. “We’re _Irish_.”

They all laughed at that, and the other look in Adam’s eyes – the one Larry probably only imagined, a faint glimmer of doubt or hurt, whatever it was – faded.

_Probably just a shine on his glasses. And Edge does like him.  
_

_Nowhere near as much as I like him, though._

“You owe me two dollars,” Edge said.

“Oh,” Bono said, sheepishly. “Was that ten? Louisville?”

Edge sighed, a fake martyr’s sigh. “Indianapolis,” he intoned. “Amherst, Massachusetts. New York.”

At _New York_ they all fell silent for a minute, chewing the anxious taste of the words; New York always did that to them.

“All right,” Bono said after a moment. “Um,” he patted his back pocket. “I’m pretty sure,” he said, digging in his front pocket, “that I had some dollars around here somewhere.”

“For heaven’s sake,” Edge smiled.

“How convenient,” Adam teased.

 _Typical,_ Larry thought affectionately. The warmth was still glowing in his eyes when he looked at Adam again, and something in Adam’s expression troubled him.

_Just because I like Bono ... Bono’s my brother, Adam knows that. They’re all my brothers.  
_

_Brothers._

The word tasted strange in his … brain, he supposed, as it hadn’t reached his mouth.

“Cards?” he proposed to Adam, fishing the deck from the inside pocket of his denim jacket.

“I already owe you seven thousand pretend quid,” Adam moaned in protest.

“Nine thousand,” Larry said, smiling.

“Well,” Adam said resignedly. “Good thing it’s pretend, then. Deal.”


End file.
